Quicknation    White Noise

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White Noise White Noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal's power spectral density has equal power in any band, at any centre frequency, having a given bandwidth.

An infinite-bandwidth white noise signal is purely a theoretical construct. By having power at all frequencies, the total power of such a signal is infinite. In practice, a signal can be "white" with a flat spectrum over a defined frequency band.

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The term white noise is also commonly applied to a noise signal in the spatial domain which has zero autocorrelation with itself over the relevant space dimensions. The signal is then "white" in the spatial frequency domain (this is equally true for signals in the angular frequency domain, e.g. the distribution of a signal across all angles in the night sky). The image to the right displays a finite length, discrete time realization of a white noise process generated from a computer.

Being uncorrelated in time does not however restrict the values a signal can take. Any distribution of values is possible (although it must have zero DC component). For example, a binary signal which can only take on the values 1 or 0 will be white if the sequence of zeros and ones is statistically uncorrelated. Noise having a continuous distribution, such as a normal distribution, can of course be white.

It is often incorrectly assumed that Gaussian noise (see normal distributionWhite Noise is necessarily white noise. However, neither property implies the other. Thus, the two words "Gaussian" and "white" are often both specified in mathematical models of systems. Gaussian white noise is a good approximation of many real-world situations and generates mathematically tractable models. These models are used so frequently that the term additive white Gaussian noise has a standard abbreviation: AWGN. Gaussian white noise has the useful statistical property that its values are independent (see Statistical independence).

One use for white noise is in the field of architectural acoustics. Here in order to submerge distracting, undesirable noises (for example conversations, etc.,) in interior spaces, a constant low level of noise is generated and provided as a background sound. White noise is used by some sirens for emergency vehicles, due to its ability to cut through background noise (e.g. urban traffic noise).

White noise has also been used in electronic music, where it is used either directly or as an input for a filter to create other types of noise signal. It is used extensively in audio synthesis, typically to recreate percussive instruments such as cymbals which have high noise content in their frequency domain.

It is also used to generate impulse responses. To set up the EQ for a concert or other performance in a venue, a short burst of white noise is sent through the PA system and monitored from various points in the venue so that the engineer can tell if the acoustics of the building naturally boost or cut any frequencies. He or she can then adjust the overall EQ to ensure a balanced mix.

White noise is used as the basis of some random number generators.

White noise can be used to disorient individuals prior to interrogation and may be used as part of sensory deprivation techniques.

is a white random vector if and only if its mean vector and autocorrelation matrix are the following:

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I.e., it is a zero mean random vector, and its autocorrelation matrix is a multiple of the identity matrix. When the autocorrelation matrix is a multiple of the identity, we say that it has spherical correlation.

is a white noise process if and only if its mean function and autocorrelation function satisfy the following:

dl

I.e., it is a zero mean process for all time and has infinite power at zero time shift since its autocorrelation function is the Dirac delta function.

The above autocorrelation function implies the following power spectral density.

dl

since the Fourier transform of the delta function is equal to 1. Since this power spectral density is the same at all frequencies, we call it

Two theoretical applications using a white random vector are the an arbitrary random vector, we transform a white random vector with a carefully chosen matrix. We choose the transformation matrix so that the mean and covariance matrix of the transformed white random vector matches the mean and covariance matrix of the arbitrary random vector that we are simulating. To an arbitrary random vector, we transform it by a different carefully chosen matrix so that the output random vector is a white random vector.

These two ideas are crucial in applications such as channel estimation and channel equalization in communications and audio. These concepts are also used in data compression.

. Since this matrix is Hermitian symmetric and positive semidefinite, by the spectral theorem from linear algebra, we can diagonalize or factor the matrix in the following way.

dl is the diagonal matrix of eigenvalues.

We can simulate the 1st and 2nd moment properties of this random vector mg "\mathbb{E} \{(\mathbf{x} - \mu) (\mathbf{x} - \mu)^T\} = H \, \mathbb{E} \{\mathbf{w} \mathbf{w}^T\} \, H^T = H \, H^T = E \Lambda^{12}\, E^T \, \mathbb{E} \{( \mathbf{x} - \mathbf{\mu} )( \mathbf{x} - \mathbf{\mu} )^T\} E \, \Lambda^{-1

Thus, with the above transformation, we can whiten the random vector to have zero mean and the identity covariance matrix.

We can extend the same two concepts of simulating and whitening to the case of continuous time random signals or processes. For simulating, we create a filter into which we feed a white noise signal. We choose the filter so that the output signal simulates the 1st and 2nd moments of any arbitrary random process. For whitening, we feed any arbitrary random signal into a specially chosen filter so that the output of the filter is a white noise signal.

"White noise fed into a linear, time-invariant filter to simulate the 1st and 2nd moments of an arbitrary random process." White noise fed into a linear, time-invariant filter to simulate the 1st and 2nd moments of an arbitrary random process."K_x(\tau) = \mathbb{E} \left\{ (x(t_1) - \mu) (x(t_2) - \mu)^{*} \right\} \mbox{ where } \tau = t_1 - t_2" "S_x(\omega) = \frac{\Pi_{k=1}^{N} (c_k - j \omega)(c^{*}_k + j \omega)}{\Pi_{k=1}^{D} (d_k - j \omega)(d^{*}_k + j \omega)}" "An arbitrary random process x(t) fed into a linear, time-invariant filter that whitens x(t) to create white noise at the output." An arbitrary random process x(t) fed into a linear, time-invariant filter that whitens x(t) to create white noise at the output.

We choose the minimum phase filter so that the resulting inverse filter is stable. Additionally, we must be sure that span does not have any singularities.

The final form of the whitening procedure is as follows:

dl"S_{w}(\omega) = \mathcal{F} \left\{ \mathbb{E} \{ w(t_1) w(t_2) \} \right\} = H_{inv}(\omega) S_x(\omega) H^{*}_{inv}(\omega) = \frac{S_x(\omega)}{S_x(\omega)} = 1"

Note that this power spectral density corresponds to a delta function for the covariance function of span